<
https://www.theverge.com/24190846/harmonium-the-musical-developer-interview-deaf-culture-experience>
"Before I even touched the demo of
Harmonium: The Musical at Summer Game Fest
earlier this month, I started bawling. It’s about a young deaf girl, Melody,
who wishes to participate in the musical traditions of her hearing family. That
desire leads her to an adventure in the magical land of Harmonium where music
and sign language are the primary means of communication. But what really got
me about this game is the dedication from its development team to not only make
this game but make it right — with all of the costs and risks that entails.
Harmonium is the latest project from The Odd Gentlemen, an LA-based studio
known for its revival of the Sierra Entertainment point-and-click adventure
classic
King’s Quest. Studio founder Matt Korba told
The Verge that
Harmonium was inspired by theater troupes like Deaf West that incorporate
sign language into their productions. But in developing
Harmonium, Korba said
he wanted a game that went beyond what he felt most studios do when tackling
representation. “Usually on projects like this, the script will be written in
English, and [developers will hire] a consultant at the last minute that knows
sign language, and they’ll just translate,” Korba said.
To Korba,
Harmonium required a “ground-up approach” that, from day one,
integrated the people with the same lived experiences as the characters created
for the game. That included engaging the Southern California Association for
the Deaf and recruiting deaf developers and artists. This led Korba to Matt
Daigle, a deaf artist, performer, and graphic designer notable for creating the
international symbol for breastfeeding and his webcomic
That Deaf Guy
depicting the everyday life of a mixed-hearing family. He also found Søren Bro
Sparre, a deaf animator from Denmark whose hiring introduced the challenge of
communicating not only in English and American Sign Language but in Danish Sign
Language as well.
For Daigle, Harmonium is a way to share more of Deaf culture, including
dispelling what he called the cultural myth that music isn’t for deaf people.
“I relate to Melody because I grew up in a family of musicians, and I played
the clarinet,” Daigle signed in our interview with helpful translation from his
interpreter. “It’s good to show that a person who was hearing who became deaf
can still enjoy music, and that deaf people enjoy everything in their own
way.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
